Solar collectors are routinely formed with a black, solar receptive surface, to increase the absorptance of the collector. A common material for this coating is black paint. While black paint has a high absorptance, in the range of about 0.95, this material suffers from a high emittance, which is also in the range of about 0.95. Thus, while a black painted solar collector collects a great amount of solar energy, black painted solar collectors also permit much of this energy to escape. Black paint has often been used as a solar collector coating, however, due to its low cost.
It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to produce a solar collector coating material which provides a high absorptance level and maintains the low cost achieved by black paint, while reducing emittence levels, to thereby increase the amount of energy retained by the collector and transferred for solar heating.